Oconee Electric Light & Power Co v. Carter

• Court: Georgia Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: SIMMONS
• Citation: Oconee Electric Light & Power Co v. Carter, 111 Ga. 106, 36 S.E. 457 (Ga. 1900)
• Decision Date: 07 June 1900
• Parties: OCONEE ELECTRIC LIGHT & POWER CO. et al. v. CARTER et al.

111 Ga. 106

36 S.E. 457

OCONEE ELECTRIC LIGHT & POWER CO. et al.

v.CARTER et al.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

June 7, 1900.

EMINENT DOMAIN — CONDEMNATION OF WATER POWER—ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANIES.

1. The act of December 7, 1897 (Acts 1897, p. 68), confers the power to condemn the property of others upon such corporations or individuals only as own or control any water power in this state or location for steam plant. It confers no power to condemn a water power, but only to condemn rights of way or other easements upon the lands of others in order to run lines of wire, maintain dams, etc., or for other uses necessary to transmit electricity for the purpose of lighting towns or cities, or supplying motive power to railroads or streetcar lines, or heat or power to the public. It confers no power to condemn an undivided interest or easement in a water power the remainder of which is owned by the electric light corporation which is seeking to condemn.

2. There is no general law giving electric light companies power to condemn the private property of others.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error from superior court, Baldwin county; John C. Hart, Judge.

Suit by W. C. Carter and others againstthe Oconee Electric Light & Power Company and others. Judgment for plaintiffs. Defendants bring error. Affirmed.

Allen & Pottle and J. R. L. Smith, for plaintiffs in error.

Jos. S. Turner, for defendants in error.

SIMMONS, C. J. It appears from the record that the Oconee Electric Light & Power Company, a corporation chartered by the superior court of Baldwin county, owned land in that county on both sides of the Oconee river, in which there is a water power. In one of the deeds made to the company there was a reservation of the grantors' interest in the water power. The company gave notice to the persons reserving this interest that it intended to condemn their interest in the water power. These persons filed an equitable petition in which they sought to have the condemnation proceedings enjoined. The company answered, admitting that the plaintiffs held an undivided interest or an easement in the water power. The trial judge granted the injunction, and the company excepted. Whether the reservation in the deed of the plaintiffs was a reservation or an exception it is not necessary to decide, nor whether there was reserved the soil over which the water flowed, or only the force or power of the water. We put our decision solely upon the power granted in the act of 1897 (Acts 1897, p. 68). That act, in substance, gives the right to an electric light company which owns or controls a water power, or location for steam plant, to condemn rights of way or other easements over the lands of others, where it is necessary in order to carry out the purposes of its organization,...